When Kerry Jordan registered National Dog Photography Day as an awareness day in 2018, she never imagined it would go viral.
As she spends her days capturing pooches, she wanted to create a day where pet parents could post as many of their photos as they liked.
What started as a bit of fun and a chance to look at dog photos took off massively and the first year saw Kerry being interviewed by newspapers all over the world.
And this year National Dog Photography Day went crazy. On Twitter alone around 20,000 tweets were posted using the hashtag in 24 hours and it trended at number 1!
On Facebook and Instagram, the # reached just under 1.5 million people according to data from analysts Brand 24.
This post of the Queen and her Corgis from was the second most liked worldwide from @windsor.royal.family on Instagram.
Brands like Dog Trust (of course), Porsche 911, Debenhams, Chelsea FC, The Woodland Trust, Visit Britain and Sipsmith Gin shared their canine companions.
Celebrities like footballer Frank Lampard, Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis and blogger Zoella shared photos of their furry friends.
This post of Frank with his favourite dog, Snoop Dogg, went crazy!
One of our favourites for #nationaldogphotographyday pic.twitter.com/R94HCizfwf
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 26, 2019
Can’t let #nationaldogphotographyday go by without Gladys making an appearance ! #DogsofTwittter #fridayfeeling pic.twitter.com/dRBAzQ1c5q
— Theo Paphitis (@TheoPaphitis) July 26, 2019
TV shows including Peaky Blinders, BBC Breakfast, Emmerdale and ITV jumped in with all four paws.
Even politicians and universities got involved with graduates from the University of Manchester cuddling dogs while in their caps and gowns!
It’s #NationalDogPhotographyDay so let’s look at some of our good boys and girls! ? pic.twitter.com/2MNPN0yFlb
— The University of Manchester (@OfficialUoM) July 26, 2019
Kerry said: “It has been amazing. I literally didn’t have a shower until half ten as to get the ball rolling I was sat at my kitchen table from dawn, tweeting and retweeting.
“We did a charity event for one of our local dog charities on the day too, taking photos to raise money which was awesome, and by the time I got back it was trending at Number 1 on UK Twitter.
“I was screaming and so excited. But more than anything the best thing for me was seeing the gorgeous dogs and people sharing their stories about their dogs.
“More companies have got involved this year and people have been doing things for charity which is really important, so it’s just been brilliant.”
Kerry had the idea for the awareness day last year after attending a content training event by marketing expert Janet Murray.
She went away and registered the event with YearAhead.com, a database that supply information on awareness days to journalists and marketeers.
Last year, she had only a few weeks to plan, but this year, as Kerry and I are accountability buddies, I did a training session on how pet businesses could maximise the day.
Oh my days! Trending #2 on twitter #NationalDogPhotographyDay – thanks so much to everyone who is taking part!! I’m loving seeing all the photos! pic.twitter.com/bc4f4oc92z
— Kerry Jordan (@FurAndFables) July 26, 2019
The session was delivered via Zoom and Kerry explained what the day was about and how people could join in, and shared photography tips on my blog too.
Photography tips from National Dog Photography Day founder Kerry Jordan.
I spoke about using the event to create a press release, finding a local photographer to collaborate with, and came up with 20 social media ideas to get everyone started.
It was brilliant and gave people the chance to virtually meet Kerry and see her passion for photography and the day itself.
People put on events all over the country and the pet businesses on my page all got together and shared each other’s content, amplifying their reach on social media.
It was absolutely amazing and I’m so thankful to everyone who got behind Kerry and her awareness day and flooded the internet with gorgeous dogs.
Kerry said: “Thank you to everyone who made it such an amazing day, who got behind it and were as Twitter happy as I have.
“I can’t wait for next year when I’m going to make a Guinness World Record attempt and make the day even bigger and better.”
Find out more about Kerry at www.furandfables.com.
If you found this post helpful, you might like to read How to create an awareness day with Kerry Jordan, Why working with a professional pet photographer can help you grow your pet business , How to use awareness days to get press coverage and How to use awareness days in your pet business content
